


a mentor’s comfort

by nakayuz



Category: One Piece
Genre: Advice, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mentioned Gol D. Roger, Mentioned Portgas D. Ace, Mentors, Nightmares, One Piece Spoilers, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rusukaina, Talking, Time Skips, Training
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-13 07:04:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21240125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nakayuz/pseuds/nakayuz
Summary: rayleigh’s job as a mentor isn’t limited to physical training. clearly the kid was still having a hard time with his trauma from the war. maybe a little personal advice could aid him in recovery.





	a mentor’s comfort

it’s been about four months since the death- rather, the sacrifice- of portgas d. ace.

after paying tribute to not only his brother but his brother’s captain, and everyone else who had passed in the war, captain straw hat luffy sent a message to his  nakama who were scattered about the world in only a couple letters, numbers, and a X tattooed onto his arm.

unsurprisingly, they followed their captain’s selfish order. most, if not all of the mates stayed on the island they have been blown away to, as each provided something they needed; whether it be a place to learn more about the science of weather or the miracle of medicine, or even a place to get stronger from your own rival or even from challenging many,  many _okama_ _’s_ for a single recipe.

with that, monkey d. luffy was taken in by the former king of pirates right hand man himself, silver rayleigh. the two were left at the abandoned island of  _rusukaina_ with the help of the kuja pirates.

only barely over the trauma, luffy forces himself up every day from what sleep he was able to obtain to train himself to the limits, all for not only himself and his dream, but for his  nakama .

but rayleigh noticed the difference quickly.

from the time he had spent with the boy on sabaody before kuma had shown up, there was this light in his eyes- a light so bright that if one were to so much as look in his direction, no matter how far, they could be blinded.

but when he had met up with him on amazon lily after swimming the majority of the way there, that light was gone. it had vanished without a trace. it almost startled him, but, when it all came back to him, he knew he shouldn’t be surprised.

the sight of one’s brother sacrificing himself before his eyes, along with the weight of knowing he was not strong enough to protect him, or his friends, or even himself...

it’s no surprise the hope and confidence was ripped away from the poor kid.

every once and a while, by the fire that rayleigh would stay up late by, while a sleeping luffy was close by, curled up with a thin blanket around his shoulders, rayleigh could feel the air shift.

after spending all those years on a pirate ship in the most dangerous parts of sea, he had come to familiarize himself with this atmosphere.

his eyes shifted to luffy, he could just barely make out a grimace in the soft illumination of the fire. he was holding onto his blanket tightly, twitching and gritting his teeth. 

now, back on his now destroyed pirate ship, he couldn’t necessarily care less about awakening crew mates to escape the misery of their nightmares. he never knew a single one of their stories or even the reason behind their terrors, and he never asked, since he didn’t want to know in the first place. 

but even so, despite wanting to be pretty harsh on the kid for the benefit of his future, he can’t help but take pity on him. 

with a sigh, rayleigh extends his leg out and nudges the boy’s shoulder with his foot. “wake up.” he says.

along with learning about the ever present nightmares from these four months, he has also learned this:

luffy is one hell of a heavy sleeper.

and because rayleigh didn’t like the fact he was taking pity on him, or the fact that he didn’t wake up to his first try and didn’t want to be any more patient then he was, he reels his leg back and kicks luffy in stomach, making sure to add some haki in there so it’ll actually have an effect, and then luffy is sent flying through the forest in complete darkness.

he lets himself chuckle at the scream from him. it’s not agonizing, not full of emotion -besides surprise-, but was funny because he knew he still wasn’t used to actual pain and that it was almost like he wasn’t sure how to react to it, so the scream that sounded in the night was more of a mixture of words, gasps, and weird strangled noises.

still, rayleigh forces himself up from his seat on a rough log and looks down the path he had made in the forest. he can see luffy’s bright red shirt even in the dark. it almost glowed. “hey,” he calls, “you alright?”

“what the hell, rayleigh?!” the responder’s voice is raspy and laced heavily with exhaustion, and it only makes rayleigh’s mocking smirk grow.

“get back over here.” rayleigh sits back down, adjusting his legs as to get comfortable again. he listened to the sounds of crunching leaves and heavy footsteps, a couple of twigs breaking as luffy hiked his way back. 

he stepped into the space where the fire could barely illuminate, becoming visible to the man. he already had a couple of bandages from training before, but there were new bruises and scratches. he was clutching his stomach, breathing heavily as he glared rayleigh down for a moment before returning to his place on the ground by the fire.

he sits down and wraps the blanket around his shoulders, then brings his legs to his chest, resting his chin on his knees. he’s staring at the fire so intently he could have accidentally used haki.

“you were having a nightmare, luffy.” rayleigh says. 

his job as a mentor isn’t limited to physical training, he thought. clearly the kid was still having a hard time with his trauma from the war. he knew it very well; it affected even his training during the day. sometimes he was caught off guard dozing off and would have a rude awakening in the form of a bat cracking against the side of his head. other times it was simply the devoid look in his eyes. there was a period of time where he refused to eat, even look at meat.  _the smell_ , luffy kept repeating.  _it was the smell._

luffy closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, inhaling the strong smell of burning wood. "yeah." he says. "you didn't need to wake me."

it's true; rayleigh didn’t need to. usually the boy would wake himself up just from the terror alone, usually with a gasp or a scream of his brother’s name accompanying it. but it doesn’t mean he shouldn’t. really, after all rayleigh has been putting him through, shouldn’t he be a little more thankful?

“you don’t need to tell me what it is.” rayleigh says, looking at the fire. “i know it was bad. just sit there and calm down for a moment, then go back to sleep.”

luffy doesn’t want to thank him. he hums lightly and squeezes his legs, forcing his breathing to slow with deep breaths. one side of him is glad the mentor took pity on him and woke him- another side is mad, maybe even embarrassed that the mentor took pity on him. he’s been pitied so, so many times. he’s tired of it.

rayleigh knows it all too well. “will you let me say a few words?” he rests his elbows on his legs and clasps his hands together, leaning forward towards the warmth of the fire. the nights of  _rusukaina_ were normally cold and brutal, and the cold was finally catching up to the two.

luffy doesn’t respond, only glances in his direction awkwardly.

“in my many, many years,” rayleigh starts, his eyes focusing on the flames, the colors of red and orange dancing together within it, “i have seen many comrades die, in many different ways, for many different reasons.”

luffy’s grip on his legs tighten at the words, knowing exactly that he’s referring to how he witnessed his own brother’s death. he tries to suppress the horrific memory to listen to what the man has to say.

“i wasn’t there for it, but that includes roger’s death too.” rayleigh lets a soft smile appear on his face. “i knew how he died, why, when, what he said... everything.”

_the king of pirate’s death_ _..._ luffy thinks.  _ace’s..._

“let me tell you, i’ve never met that brother of yours. i only know his relation to roger.” rayleigh’s smile grows. “roger loved him. and without a doubt in my mind, roger would be devastated that his child died because of him.”

_but was it really because of that_ _?_ luffy continues to think. his discomfort is growing, and the memory becomes harder to suppress.  _or was it... because i couldn’t..._

“but...” silvers rayleigh looks up. up at the dark night sky devoid of stars, just a bright full moon doing the dirty work of providing light. “he would be proud of the way he died. why he died.” he then looks back at the curled up boy, who’s biting his lip, “who he died for.”

“ace chose to die for you. ace wanted you to live and strive. what were his last words?” rayleigh pauses. “probably something along the lines of thanking everyone- maybe even apologizing.” he watches as the boy’s face twists and changes to match different emotions.

“i’ve seen and heard of countless deaths in my lifetime, including the death of the king of pirates. including people dear to me, or my crew...all of them, nameless and meaningless deaths, leaving this world full of unfulfilled promises and regret. leaving nothing behind except a word or two and maybe a couple of worthless possessions. their memory becomes a promise to be forgotten.” 

luffy doesn’t want to hear any more. he buries his head in his legs, pulling the blanket around his shoulders over his head, hiding himself from his mentor.

“but, not ace. ace’s death wasn’t meaningless. his memory will never be forgotten, his life was more than absent from regret.” rayleigh stands up and takes a couple of steps towards luffy, then kneels down next to him, placing a hand gingerly on top of his head, over the thin blanket. “rather than beat yourself up with the guilt of surviving and the pain of not being able to protect him,” luffy starts to look up at contact, “use those emotions- the one’s that haunt your dreams and mind, the one’s destroying your confidence little by little- to better yourself and become stronger.”

luffy looks up at rayleigh, a slight stinging in his eyes. 

in return, rayleigh smiles. “because above all else, it would be ace who would want you to. don’t you think?”

a couple of tears makes their way from luffy’s eyes, and his hand shoots up to wipe them away-  _no more crying, i promised_ _._ he smiles up at his mentor. “thank you, rayleigh.” he says. “i’ll become stronger. for ace.” there’s a pause. “and for my nakama.”

”now get to sleep. i won’t go easy on you tomorrow.” rayleigh retreats back to his log. “you’ll be working on your armament haki.”

an idea makes its way into luffy’s head as he watches rayleigh put out the fire with a swipe of his hand. he’s managed to activate armament before; the heat in his arm, he thinks, could produce some sparks, maybe even a little flame.

”red... hawk...” luffy whispers as darkness engulfs his surroundings, exhaustion once more creeping up on him, fatigue from the day overwhelming him. a smile spreads across his lips as he lays back down on the rough ground.

a way to honor his brother begins to formulate in his mind as he drifts back to sleep, the words from rayleigh echoing in his mind alongside it.

**Author's Note:**

> honestly, it was hard to write rayleigh accurately.


End file.
